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Riot Games has given fresh information on the 2023 LoL esports season.

Today Riot Games has released a press release surrounding the biggest LoL esports topics heading into the 2023 season. This ‘state of the game’ provides full details on the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, including its format along with information for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship.

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MSI 2023 is heading to London

Rumors have been circulating for weeks on the location of the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational. Today Riot announces that the location for MSI will be in London England! London has previously hosted a portion of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship

MSI format is changing with double-elimination brackets

Fans have been asking for League of Legends biggest international competitions to ‘get with the times’ and use double-elimination brackets in their esports tournaments. Fans' prayers have been answered as the MSI format will be changing for 2023.

Firstly, MSI will be expanding to 13 teams which will give regions more seeds. And secondly, both the play-in stage and the Bracket Stage will now feature double-elimination brackets.

Riot Games announces MSI and Worlds information in ‘state of the game’ post cover image

Play-Ins will feature eight teams: the two seed teams from LEC, LCS and LPL, and one team from LLA, CBLOL, PCS, VCS, and LJL. For the LCK this year, their second seed will go automatically into the bracket stage because of their Worlds triumph.

The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four to compete in best-of-three, double-elimination matches. This format has been used frequently at Valorant international events.

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The winners of each group will move onto the Bracket Stage to join the five qualified teams. The winners of respective last-chance qualifier matches in the group stage will be the final teams qualifying for the group stage.

The eight remaining teams will now play in the Bracket Stage. This stage will see eight teams face off in a double-elimination best-of-five bracket. This will include the three winners of Play-Ins, along with LEC1, LCK1 and 2, LPL1 and LCS1.

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Worlds will return to Korea for the first time in five years

After five years away from the winningest region in League of Legends history, Riot has announced today that Worlds will be returning to Korea!

“Korea is the birthplace of esports and home of the defending World Champions and we cannot wait to share venues and dates in the coming months.” - Riot Games

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Worlds will also have a brand new format

Fans have been asking for Riot Games to change the Worlds format for many years. This year there will finally be some additions to esports biggest event of the year.

The tournament will be divided into three stages, the Play-in, Swiss and Knockouts. Riot is also announcing a new level of qualification known as the Worlds Qualifying series. The Worlds Qualifying series will be a best-of-five series between the fourth seeds from the LCS and LEC.

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Here is how each stage will work at Worlds 2023:

Play-in Stage

The Play-in stage will consist of eight teams from the following regions:

All images courtesy of Riot Games

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